MRC Epidemiology Unit

At our next hybrid Bradford Hill Seminar, @dannydorling.bsky.social of the University of Oxford will discuss:

The politics of epidemiology and public health in the UK

📅 Wed 15 October, 1 PM (UK)

Register at buff.ly/wblZfOx

@dphpc.bsky.social @mrc-bsu.bsky.social @phgfoundation.bsky.social

Do you want to learn how the Intake24 online dietary recall tool can be customised for your dietary intake research?

Join our FREE webinar with Cambridge Intake24 team members Polly Page &Toni Steer to explore new features & customisation.

📅 Weds 8 Oct, 1 PM – 2 PM (UK)

Register buff.ly/3Adc6Du

Cover of the 2025 EAT–Lancet report, featuring an image of a person scooping up green vegetables in their hands from a large plate. The report quote: “The targets of the EAT–Lancet Commission for healthy people on a healthy planet with just food systems can only be met through concerted global action and unprecedented levels of transformative change.”

The world produces enough food, yet billions lack access to healthy & sustainable diets. A new EAT–Lancet report presents a science-based approach to improve health, safeguard our environment & provide for a projected 9.6 billion people by 2050.

🔗 bit.ly/3W7rxlP

Title page of the report ‘The EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy, sustainable, and just food systems’ The Lancet (2025)

Based on the report’s findings, the Commission outlines eight potential solutions to advance health, environmental, and justice goals, each supported by concrete actions.

Read the full report ‘The EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy, sustainable, and just food systems’:

buff.ly/Y2injb0

(3/3)

Screengrab of YouTube video for the launch of the 2025 EAT-Lancet Commission report, showing Professor Nita Forouhi discussing the report and planetary health diet.

Unit researcher Prof. Nita Forouhi, an EAT-Lancet Commissioner, comments:

"What we eat and how food is produced has a profound impact not only on health, but also on planetary sustainability"

Watch Prof. Forouhi discussing the report's findings and their implications buff.ly/DVu0Uuq

(2/3)

Photo of fruit, vegetables and processed foods at a food market by Rezkytama Putra on Unsplash

The 2025 EAT-Lancet Commission report warns that our food systems breach planetary limits, and outlines a pathway to a healthier and more sustainable future.

Read more at buff.ly/VGBZEsN

#foodsystem #planetaryhealthdiet #sustainablefoodsystems

🧵 (1/3)

Issue 4 of the 2025 epigram newsletter is out now.

Find out about …

Which cooked potatoes are better for you
A research collaboration discovering how urban environments can support health
And the work of the Global Diet and Activity Research Network

... and more!

Read - buff.ly/3ts21tH

They found family deprivation - assessed with indicators including education level, family income & home ownership - was more strongly linked to feeding practices and child eating behaviours that contribute to higher obesity rates than neighbourhood food environments.

Paper: buff.ly/acoBbFx

(3/3)

The @nihr.bsky.social funded research in four socioeconomically diverse London boroughs recruited 728 families with primary school-aged children.

One caregiver per family was interviewed on food environment, parental feeding practices, and children’s eating behaviours, preferences & weight.

(2/3)

Family affluence shields children from the risks of obesity and unhealthy eating habits, even when they're surrounded by unhealthy food options, according to a study co-led by Dr @andreadsmith.bsky.social and Prof Clare Llewellyn @uclpophealthsci.bsky.social

UCL blog buff.ly/NYr0V0x

🧵 (1/3)

Do you want to learn how the Intake24 online dietary recall tool can be customised for your dietary intake research?

Join our FREE webinar with Cambridge Intake24 team members Polly Page &Toni Steer to explore new features & customisation.

📅 Weds 8 Oct, 1 PM – 2 PM (UK)

Register buff.ly/3Adc6Du

New study quantifies how food production drives species extinction risk – with enormous variation across foods and regions

Read...
📖the full story 👉 buff.ly/4pbcVHt
🔖 the full paper in Nature Food buff.ly/JZBEVLn
🍽️ More about Mandala here buff.ly/WOHbQrI

What's to be done? The research shows:
📊different strategies are needed in different settings
🥣even moderate shifts in food production and diets could lead to large reductions in extinction risk
👨‍🌾 policy, trade & farming practices matter not just diet choices 6/7

By contrast, e.g. for 🇧🇷Brazil, 🇺🇬Uganda & 🇮🇳 India, most biodiversity risk comes from domestic production, especially animal products & tropical commodities. 5/7

🗺️Location also matters. In the UK, 45% of food is imported, and the overseas biodiversity impact of UK diets is ~20x greater than domestic farming. This is driven by e.g. beef, lamb, coffee, cocoa, bananas & other tropical goods. 4/7

🐄 Ruminant meat (mainly beef & lamb) stands out: producing 1kg can have ~1000x the extinction risk impact of 1kg of vegetables, and ~100x that of plant proteins like legumes. 3/7

Dr Thomas Ball, Lead author on the study said: "The LIFE metric allows users, for the first time, to directly assess the impacts of different land uses across the globe on species extinction risks. Linking this to data on crop and livestock production means that we can investigate the potential extinction impacts of almost all food products.”

Using the LIFE metric which links crops, livestock & extinction risk for 30,000 vertebrate land species, the study, published in Nature Food, quantifies how agriculture is reshaping habitats worldwide. 2/7

New study quantifies how food production drives species extinction risk – with enormous variation across foods and regions

🌍 New research from the Mandala Consortium and Cambridge Zoology shows the scale of species extinction risk driven by food production, with huge differences across foods & regions. Impacts can vary by up to 1,000x depending on what we eat & where it’s produced. buff.ly/4pbcVHt 🧵 1/7

The new system systematically categorizes food items into a three-level food group structure, which aligns with public health priorities, and offers detailed analysis of consumption patterns.

It is flexible, allowing it to fit dietary trends and support use in populations around the globe.

(2/2)

Researchers in the Unit's Dietary Assessment team and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) have established a new, updated food grouping system for the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS).

Read about the new system at buff.ly/Rw7pkk9

🧵 (1/2)

(4/4)
Authors:
Amollo Ambole - University of Nairobi, Kenya
Christer Anditi - University of Nairobi, Kenya
Tolu Oni - MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge

(3/4)

Potential of citizen science to advance urban planetary health research in low & middle-income countries: A scoping review, highlights the need for greater diversity of funding sources & for alignment of research priorities with contextual realities in the Global South

Read - buff.ly/GGqiTy

(2/4)

The participatory nature of planetary health requires dynamic methods to better understand exposures. Citizen science can help co-produce community-relevant evidence, but its use in LMIC cities for planetary health hasn't been fully explored.

Published in @plosglobalpublichealth.org.

(1/4)
Planetary Health explores the link between environmental changes & human health

A review on citizen science in urban planetary health research in low & middle-income countries stresses the need for varied funding and aligning research priorities with Global South realities

buff.ly/GGqiTyj

Age-related change in children’s physical activity and sedentary time: The International Children’s Accelerometry Database (ICAD) Background Many young people fail to achieve the minimum recommended amount of physical activity to benefit their health. Understanding the nature of age-related changes in behaviour and how this…

The researchers led by Unit scientist Esther Van Sluijs & Unit alumnus Andrew Atkin found the changes occurred in male and female children across childhood & adolescence, though small differences in the size of changes could help guide timing and targeting of interventions.

buff.ly/71bop0f

(2/2)

Sedentary time increases by 25 minutes a day every year, with a corresponding fall in physical activity during childhood and adolescence.

That's the finding from analysis of accelerometer data from >6K children aged 4 to 16 years in the International Children’s Accelerometry Database (ICAD).

(1/2)

In this paper Kerry Jones and colleagues describe a reliable liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method to measure vitamin D in low volumes of human milk.

They found that in breast milk from women in rural Gambia, vitamin D content averaged 42 IU/L.

Read the paper buff.ly/hxri8AM

Image of hand holding a mobile phone with a food delivery app open.

Analysis of 21 million menu items listed on JustEat by Yuru Huang et al. finds that online menu item prices are relatively high in the UK, with promotions widespread.

Food outlets serving deprived areas often offer lower prices and more promotions.

Read the PHN paper : buff.ly/zAODWxl

Free webinar: Customising Intake24 for your dietary intake research With Polly Page &Toni Steer and other members of the Cambridge Intake24 team. Wednesday 8 Oct, 1 PM – 2 PM (UK) .

Do you want to learn how the Intake24 online dietary recall tool can be customised for your dietary intake research?

Join our FREE webinar with Cambridge Intake24 team members Polly Page &Toni Steer to explore new features & customisation.

📅 Weds 8 Oct, 1 PM – 2 PM (UK)

Register buff.ly/tbDAgUJ

They presented the Story "Modernising UK Nutrient Surveillance: Innovations in Dietary Data Infrastructure, Inclusivity, and Policy Implementation" on innovations they made to data infrastructure, efficiency & inclusivity in the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS)

buff.ly/2esbDW1

(2/2)